


5 times Peter's health ruined the holidays and 1 time it didn't.

by Believe_Me_Dare



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:54:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29287908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Believe_Me_Dare/pseuds/Believe_Me_Dare
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

Peter always had a habit of overworking himself to the point of exhaustion much like one of his most revered idols. The fact that both now worked in the same lab didn’t help either of them. Pepper would often have to drag them out once she’d grown tired of not seeing them eating or drinking anything for 8 hours. However, he didn’t usually get sick when he wasn’t doing anything which was why he found this so strange. 

He’d arrived at the Stark residence the day after his final exams. He was fit and healthy. Spending the day having tea parties with Morgan, he’d found he could relax and have fun for the first time in months. He’d drifted off to sleep with the promise that they could go swimming and see some of the team the next day. Those plans were spoiled by Peter waking up with a foggy, pounding head and a churning stomach. Pepper had swept into his room around ten, allowing the 18 year old to have some much needed rest, and had immediately spotted his flushed cheeks and pale face. She’d rushed over to check him and decided on the treatment of rest. Unfortunately she hadn’t factored in her over excited 6 year old wanting to play the second Peter was deemed awake. She shot into Peter’s room in her bright hot pink swimming suit with clashing neon yellow armbands and orange goggles, jumping on him with a positively unhealthy volume.

“Peter, Peter, wake up! Daddy’s taking us swimming!”

“Morgan, ‘m sorry. ‘M not feeling well.”

“What’s wrong? Is it your teeth? Cause when I didn’t feel well, it was because my tooth fell out. Maybe we could play doctors instead? I make all my barbies sick because no one wants to play sick but now you can cause you are sick!”

“Morgan, maybe you can play with your dad.”

“Okay, I’ll go ask him!” She runs off, presumably to find him, and is replaced once more by Pepper around 2 o’clock. She places a soothing hand on his burning cheeks, while she prepares a heating pad with the other.

“Peter, I need you to turn to face me. I know it’s hurting right now, but I need you to show me where it hurts on your stomach.”

Peter does what he’s told, and slowly uncurls enough to allow Pepper to place the heating pad on his sensitive skin. He almost sighs in relief when it starts to work, and Pepper kisses him on the forehead.

“Get some rest, sweetie.” Pepper rejoins the adults around the table. “He’s doing okay. Morgan’s probably suffering more right now, it’s apparently torture that she’s not allowed to play with her favourite person ‘in the whole wide world!’. Good luck with trying to get that one to sleep. “

“It’s strange though. I’ve seen Underoos injured, but never sick."

"He's just got used to the school environment at MIT, he's probably ill because of the switch in environment. There are bugs at MIT that aren't here and there are bugs here that aren't at MIT. His immune system is getting into the swing of things and just took a little bit of a knock back." Bruce reasons.

"I'm sure you're right, I just didn't think he could get sick after the bite? I assumed it was like me and the Serum?" Cap interjects.

"Well what's done is done, he's sick no matter what you say and I'm sure he's miserable especially during his vacation." Pepper sighs

"Mom mode has been activated!" Clint laughs from his spot on the sofa, cleaning his bow.

"I'm surprised, your dad mode hasn't kicked in yet, even when away from your own kids." Tony rebukes.

"Well, where's yours then?"

"I'll have you know, I'm busy looking after my own kid!"

"Alright boys let's break it up."

"Hey Ms Potts, I’m sorry to interrupt but I think the meds have stopped working.” The whole table snaps their heads around to see a very pale Peter wrapped in a blanket, leaning against the wall for support. Of course, Tony and Pepper immediately jump to his side, checking the boy over for any new symptoms. However, their plan to take Peter back to his room is short-lived.

“Hey, kiddo, are you actually using your powers to stick to the wall?” Tony splutters in complete disbelief. This disbelief turns to dread when he realises the sticking is a subconscious decision to stop Peter falling when he faints. ”Peter, can you hear me?” There is no response and Tony nods to Bruce, who helps lift Peter enough to have Captain America himself push the sofa underneath him. Bruce grabs the necessary equipment for an IV and makes quick work of inserting it. In about ten minutes, Peter starts getting aware again. Tony kneels next to him and pushes his hair back. "Kid, you're going to be fine. Just gotta let it run its course."

Peter drops off, soft snores coming out of his congested nose. Bruce nods to Tony and both of them decide to vacate the room in favour of the lab.

"Tony, I've looked at his lab results so I'm really not sure of how he contracted this bug."

"His healing factor can definitely fix injuries but did we test his healing factor against common viruses?"

"Yes, but my calculations show that he would be unaware of the viruses as they'd run through his system in a matter of minutes."

"I'll keep an eye on him but there seems to be no answer."

By the next day, Peter had all but recovered, and Morgan dragged him out to the lake to swim all day. He continued on with his holiday and enjoyed his time with everyone until he had to return to MIT classes. He cursed his Parker Luck for ruining the start of his holiday and he just hoped he wouldn't have to experience it again.


	2. The Sensory Overload

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time, Peter gets a sensory overload.

The next time it happens, it's a respite break for the entire team in Sokovia. The Avengers had finally been allowed to come back for a significant nuclear threat and Peter was ecstatic he was allowed on the mission. He'd become a key player as he was the only one who could fit in the air vents in the targeted building (Clint had wanted to try but his weaponry was too bulky and the team ultimately decided that even though he was annoying, it wasn't right to send a fully normal human in unarmed) and he managed to rescue the majority of children from a neighbouring school on his own. It turns out the kids in Sokovia had indeed heard of Spider-Man and were his biggest fans.

All in all, they had figured out the threat and disarmed the hundreds of soldiers recruited by the attackers. No-one had been hurt on either side and it was an extremely successful mission. They'd been asked to stick around in Sokovia for a week, while the president was returned to his home safely, and so they could be presented with an award. Plus Wanda had wanted to revisit some of her favourite places so that she could properly mourn Pietro and her parents. The call was made to Aunt May and Peter was excited to finally sight-see on one of his missions. The last overseas mission had been Germany and of course Tony had left him in a hotel room next to Happy- it was him who figured out Peter was still around and escorted him home.

\------------

They sit around the breakfast table in the hotel with a deck of cards. They'd started off with snap and go fish to allow Peter to win a couple of rounds before they moved onto the 'grown up' games. Peter sighs as he loses yet again. He'd been suffering from a mild case of sensory overload since the early hours of the morning but he was confident it would wear off. For now, however, he felt unable to continue with the card games as it was too taxing on his brain- ADHD was a pain sometimes.

"I'm out. I need food. Like now." Peter stands up with the intent of grabbing some doughnuts or maybe a breakfast sandwich, smushed of course, just like Mr Delmar's. His body has other ideas though and he has to spider grip onto the table, mindful to not crush it. No-one seems to notice apart from Tony, who always keeps one eye on Peter because the kid does have a tendency to make things difficult for himself.

"You alright? You look a little unsteady on your feet. You didn't get injured did you?" This comment causes alarm amongst the team who all turn to Peter. He shakes his head, although this action does make his head feel significantly worse.

"Of course not. Karen would have told you if I was."

"Karen?" Natasha's ears prick up at the mention of an unknown person, at least to her.

"His suit AI. Peter named her. She is connected to Friday in my suit."

"He put a bunch of protocols on my suit so she tells Mr Stark basically everything I do."

"Speaking of, I don't think I asked you about those Thor-"

"No Mr Stark! I'm gonna grab a drink and maybe head to the bathroom too." Peter practically runs away to the food centre but once he gets there, he is in trouble. All the machines, the toaster, the coffee machine, the oven, are way too loud for his hearing. If he thought the ADHD induced sensory problems were bad, these spider sense induced ones were the work of the devil. Or maybe that guy Dormammu, who Dr Strange kept mentioning. Anyway, his head felt like it was literally splitting open and the pain was immobilising. Suddenly the assault on his senses targets his nose, and all the smells of the room come rushing towards him- he can smell the sickly sweet fruit and pastries, the burnt toast, every single piece of mould from the bins both inside and outside. The smell turns his stomach but he holds on long enough to grab a plate of food to reassure Mr Stark who keeps glancing over to check he's alright. However, Peter thanks Thor that the Avengers are the only ones present in the dining room as the very next breath he takes turns into a retch and he dives over to the bin just in time. The team is making so much noise that even Steve only hears a small crash as Peter's knees collide with the floor.

"Is something happening over there?" Steve frowns over in the direction of the food table and Tony looks up once again. As soon he realises Peter is out of sight and most likely the source of the crash, he jumps out of his seat.

"Peter, are you alright?" Tony calls out and receives no answer. This alarms the team too, but they choose to stay back and allow Tony to deal with Peter. The silence, however, makes Peter's next retch fully audible to even the auditory challenged Clint. Tony picks up his speed and reaches Peter just as his body gives up. Although not unconscious, Peter finds himself staring up at Tony and hearing so much that nothing is registering. Peter lets out a moan and Tony knows immediately that something is really wrong. Usually Peter would be trying to hide his ailments to appear strong for the team, and here was Peter openly showing his maladies.

"Hey Bruce, can you come over here?" Tony calls. Bruce hurries over and the team decide to hang back but make themselves busy. They know Peter doesn't like people around when he's ill but they'll likely need a MedEvac if Peter's been hiding an injury. Bruce kneels by Peter and checks his pulse. Or at least attempts to. The minute Bruce touches Peter, he's screaming, flinching, and trying to rip his shirt off, which now feels like pins and needles on his affected skin.

"Peter, where does it hurt?" Bruce pleads. At this, however, Peter clamps his hands over his ears and whines. The cogs start whirring in Tony's head as he recalls the words Peter told him before he took him to Germany.

"Bruce. It's a sensory overload. I just remembered Peter gets them from his heightened senses."

"I thought I also read in his file he has ADHD. That would make his senses already susceptible to such overloads."

"That's news to me. How do we fix...this?" Tony gestures to Peter still curled up in a ball on the floor.

"We need to move him but we can't carry him. Aside from that, we can't stop the overload, we can only make it easier to bear for him." Bruce takes a step back to gesture to the rest of the team to leave, and they oblige.

Peter peels his hands away from his ears and staggers to his feet. "I.. can.. make it… upstairs.. on my own." He staggers away from Bruce and Tony, using the wall as support right up until his knees buckle. "Mr.. Stark… I can't." Tony comes over and crouches to Peter's level.

"Is touch ok?"

Peter starts to cry and he reaches a conclusion. All he wants is to be in bed, away from the busy world and for that to happen, Tony has to carry him. He nods, the words unable to come out. Tony picks Peter up easily- they'd found that the spider bite had changed the density of Peter's bones, making him super light. They pause once on the journey, for Peter to empty out his stomach once more. Eventually they make it to his room and find that while the curtains aren't black out, they are thick enough to block out the majority of the light streaming in, and the beauty of being famous means they're located in the finest hotel, with the thickest walls. Bruce advises to lay him on top of the covers so that he can feel the coolness of the air, and Tony places the bin next to where Peter lays. They hurry out of the room in order to allow Peter to rest.

Once they leave, Peter drifts in and out of a disturbing sleep. When he isn't retching from the pain or screaming from the agony his skin feels every time he moves, he dreams of disturbing images: May mangled underneath the same building he once was trapped under, his parents mangled under the plane that took their lives, Mr Stark, mangled in his suit of armour, having fallen from thousands of feet in the air. He is barely aware when Bruce re-enters with Wanda, to check his vitals. Bruce places a palm on Peter's forehead and immediately snatches it back.

"Wanda, he's burning up. He runs high usually but this is boiling even by Peter standards. We need to lower his temperature by getting him into a lukewarm bath." Bruce mutters so as to not aggravate Peter's hearing and Wanda nods. She enters Peter's mind to relieve him of some of the pain, and lifts Peter up with her powers so his journey would be free of pain. Bruce runs to the ensuite and prepares the bath as Wanda lowers him in. During Peter's rest, he had shed almost all his clothes, leaving him in only his boxers. This certainly makes it easier for them to run a sponge gently up and down his arms, and his face. Slowly but surely his fever settles and he returns to a fitful sleep. 

Bruce returns to the group first, with Wanda also returning not soon after. Tony immediately hones in on them to see if there are any updates to Peter's condition. "Tony, he'll be fine. I think his fever spiked but we put him in a lukewarm bath so it's come down a lot. Wanda tried to ease his pain a lot-"

"There was so much pain in his mind, I almost couldn't keep a handle on it."

"That's not helpful information at the moment."

"Sorry. I managed to clear some of it away though."

"Anyway, he needs some good rest and then I'm sure he'll be fine."

\-----------------------

The next morning, Peter emerges from his bedroom, still pale but looking a lot steadier than before. Though the slight remnants of a headache linger, he is most;y feeling ok and heads to the table. To his surprise, Tony has already prepared his favourite Frosties.

"How are you feeling, Kiddo? You scared us a bit yesterday."

"I'm sorry you had to see that. It wasn't my best moment."

"Little spider, we all have our moments. Even patriotic ass over here gets overloads from time to time." Natasha smirks and nudges Steve.

"It comes with having enhanced senses, ok?" Steve rebukes "Clints ears give him trouble too."

"Yeah, well, I have the options of simply switching off my hearing. Peter doesn't have that option."

"He will soon. I'm designing completely sound-proof headphones just for you Peter. Maybe some for Spangles over there if he's lucky." Tony laughs. "And when we get back to the tower, you are going to help me build you a sensory room, so that we don't get any more scares like yesterday. The room will have different textures, complete blackout mode, and even options of scents. Maybe I'll design a way to completely eliminate scents."

Peter smiles. He knows that he's in safe hands with the team. And if he steals everyone's ice creams when they go sight-seeing later, well, he knows they could never stay mad at him for long. If only he could go one holiday without his health ruining everything.


End file.
